It was May of this year when we were raving over a native YouTube app finally release for Windows Phone 8. Microsoft and Google quickly began a public spat though, and the app was removed because it violated Google's terms of service. Fast forward to August, both companies re-released the YouTube app for WP8, with Google's apparent blessing and advertisements. Now in October, all has seemingly broken down. 

In a version 3.2 update released on 7 October, the app has reverted back to the app it was before May 2013 - dreadful. No longer does the WP8 app have a native feel, providing access to your YouTube account, notifications, subscriptions, favourites, or anything of the sort. Now the app is simply just a link to m.youtube.com, WP Central first noted. 

We've reached out for comment from Microsoft and Google to learn more about what is going on behind the scenes. Nonetheless, it's not a good situation for Microsoft, which has long been criticised for its lack of apps made available from the Windows Phone store. Now Windows Phone 8 users have to use the most generic version of YouTube across platforms, versus the fancy apps available on Android and iOS. 

In August David Howard, vice-president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft, wrote a scathing blog post titled "The limits of Google’s openness". He said Google blocked the YouTube app because it was not HTML 5-based. Here's an excerpt from Howard.